Finally, a Bright Clean Dye for 550-nm off the 488nm Laser

Results Summary

BioLegend has recently developed a new fluorophore (Spark Blue 550) for use on the 488nm laser in between FITC/AF488 and the PerCP derivatives. Prior to this, the options were Alexa Fluor 532, which is suboptimally excited by the 488nm laser and thus quite dim, or BD's Brilliant Blue 630 prototype, which is expensive, messy and not readily available for purchase.BioLegend bills Spark Blue 550 as a brighter alternative to Alexa 532, and it is. It's much brighter. But, it actually exhibits a distinct emission spectrum as well, so it can be used in combination with Alexa Fluor 532 on spectral analyzers.This antibody is so well conjugated that it can be used at a dilution of up to 1:20,000 with overnight staining.